A feeding frenzy

A short sojourn to Brisbane for a family wedding (actually I had great fun as mother of the groom!) but as always we are pleased to be home. As we drove down our driveway a cloud of white lifted off the front wetland so I was soon heading off with the binoculars to see what was happening. I think the word has got out that there is a concentrated food source at Wild Wings and Swampy Things ….it is great fun just watching the different species together, their interactions as well as their various manners of feeding.

I had several attempts at capturing Great and Intermediate Egret in the same photo at the same angle for a comparison of head shape and neck length. My aim is to improve my identification skills so that I don’t necessarily have to rely on a close look at the gape in order to tell the two species apart.

The main perching tree near this particular feeding location is a Leichardt (Nauclea orientalis) which has often featured in this blog. While it is a popular preening position, as well as the nearest tall tree if there is a disturbance, no species was willing to share a perch with the Whistling Kite which has been making at least one daily visit.

Hi Denis, thanks for congrats, I had lots of fun and now I’m trying to catch up with everyone’s recent postings. And there is so much activity in our relatively small amount of water there will be a few more postings yet….
Cheers
Barbara

WILD WINGS & SWAMPY THINGS

Now that our major restoration projects are complete we are taking more time to simply enjoy the privilege of living in such a beautiful, peaceful and endlessly interesting area.
While there are always a few maintenance tasks the work is not onerous and we can take time out to enjoy our walking tracks as well as to sit and simply look around.
It is immensely rewarding to observe the growth in the vegetation, watch trees mature and to delight in the variety and number of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects both residing on and visiting the property.